Abstract
If contact avoidance is used to avoid harmful people, then this can play an important role when people choose a spouse, by eliminating undesirable people from the list of candidates. The purpose of this study was to reveal the sex difference in contact avoidance toward people with stigmatic attributes, who are therefore disadvantaged as spouse candidates. A total of 228 university students (101 men, 127 women) participated in the survey. Seven types of men and women with stigmatic characteristics were presented and the respondents asked how much they wanted to avoid contact with each type of person in eight physical contact situations. Female respondents wanted to avoid contact with stigmatized men more than with stigmatized women. On the other hand, male respondents showed comparable responses to both stigmatized men and women. The results were considered from the perspective of mate selection based on evolutionary psychology.
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